slowthai’s third album may show a side of him that people haven’t heard before but he sees it as the fullest picture yet. “The first album was the sound of where I’m from and everything I thought I knew,” he says. “The second album is what was relevant to me at that moment in time, the present. And this album is completely me — about how I feel and what I want to be… it’s everything I’ve been leading up to.” The album cover is suitably up close and personal, with the camera zooming in tight on the left side of his face. The title of the album — an acronym for U Gotta Love Yourself — is freshly tattooed beneath his eye. slowthai doesn’t do things by halves. “I can’t make something unless I’ve gone through something,” he explains. “I had to pull myself apart and rebuild and that’s what I wanted the cover to signify.”